Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 70
For the worship leader. A song of David for remembering.
1 O God, hurry to save me;
Eternal One, hurry to my side.
2 For those who seek to kill me,
God, may they burn in disgrace and humiliation!
Repulse the attacks; ridicule the efforts
of those taking pleasure in my pain.
3 I hear their taunts: “Nah, nah, nah . . . .”
Let those hecklers fall back upon their brays—ashamed and confused—
4 But let those who pursue You
celebrate and have joy because of You.
And let the song of those who love Your saving grace
never cease: “God is great!”
5 But I am poor and in serious need,
so hurry to my side, God,
Because You are my helper, my liberator.
Eternal One, please don’t wait.
Psalm 71
1 I have found shelter in You, Eternal One;
I count on You to shield me always from humiliation and disgrace.
2 Rescue and save me in Your justice.
Turn Your ear to me, and hurry to deliver me from my enemies.
3 Be my rock of refuge where I can always hide.
You have given the order to keep me safe;
You are my solid ground—my rock and my fortress.
4 Save me from the power of sinful people, O my God,
from the grip of unjust and cruel men.
5 For You are my hope, Eternal One;
You, Lord, have been the source of my confidence since I was young.
6 I have leaned upon You since I came into this world;
I have relied on You since You took me safely from my mother’s body,
So I will ever praise You.
7 Many find me a mystery,
but You are my rock and my shelter—my soul’s asylum.
8 My mouth overflows with praise to You
and proclaims Your magnificence all day long.
9 Do not set me aside when I am old;
do not abandon me when I am worn out.
10 For my enemies often voice evil against me;
those who desire to kill me plot together in secret.
11 They say, “God has abandoned him;
let’s go after him right now and seize him.
There’s no one around to rescue him.”
12 God, stay close by me.
Come quick, O my God, and help me!
13 May my enemies be covered in shame and then die;
may those who seek to harm me
be overwhelmed with contempt and disgrace.
14 But I will keep hope alive,
and my praise to You will grow exponentially.
15 I will bear witness to Your merciful acts;
throughout the day I will speak of all the ways You deliver,
although, I admit, I do not know the entirety of either.
16 I will come with stories of Your great acts, my Lord, the Eternal.
I will remind them of Your justice, only Yours.
17 You have taught me since I was young, O God,
and I still proclaim the wonderful things You have done.
18 Now as I grow old and my hair turns gray,
I ask that You not abandon me, O God.
Allow me to share with the generation to come
about Your power;
Let me speak about Your strength and wonders
to all those yet to be born.
19 God, Your justice stretches to the heavens,
You who have done mighty things!
Who is like You, O God?
20 You have made me see hard times: I’ve experienced many miserable days,
but You will restore me again.
You will raise me up
from the deep pit.
21 You will greatly increase my status
and be my comfort once again.
22 I will praise You with music played on a harp
because You have been faithful, O my God.
I will sing praises to You with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
23 I will shout for joy
as I sing Your praises;
my soul will celebrate because You have rescued me.
24 All day long I will declare how Your justice saved me,
for those who have plotted to bring me harm
are now ashamed and humiliated.
Psalm 74
A contemplative song[a] of Asaph.
This lament was written shortly after the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 586 b.c. Now in exile and separated from God, His city, and His land, the people of God experience pain that is palpable.
1 O True God, why have You turned Your back on us and abandoned us forever?
Why is Your anger seething and Your wrath smoldering against the sheep of Your pasture?
2 Remember the congregation of people You acquired long ago,
the tribe which You redeemed to be Your very own.
Remember Mount Zion, where You have chosen to live!
3 Come, direct Your attention to Your sanctuary;
our enemy has demolished everything and left it in complete ruin.
4 Your enemies roared like lions in Your sacred chamber;
they have claimed it with their own standards as signs.
5 They acted like lumberjacks swinging their axes
to cut down a stand of trees.
6 They hacked up all the beautifully carved items,
smashed them to splinters with their axes and hammers.
7 They have burned Your sanctuary to the ground;
they have desecrated the place where Your holy name lived in honor;
8 They have plotted in their hearts, “We will crush them and bring them to their knees!”
Then they scorched all of the places in the land where the True God met His people.
9 We no longer receive signs,
there are no more prophets who remain,
and not one of us knows how long this situation will last.
10 O True God, how much longer will the enemy mock us?
Will this insult continue against You forever?
11 Why do You stand by and do nothing?
Unleash Your power and finish them off!
12 Even so, the True God is my King from long ago,
bringing salvation to His people throughout the land.
13 You have divided the sea with Your power;
You shattered the skulls of the creatures of the sea;
14 You smashed the heads of Leviathan
and fed his remains to the people of the desert.
15 You broke open the earth and springs burst forth and streams filled the crevices;
You dried up the great rivers.
16 The day and the night are both Yours—
You fashioned the sun, moon, and all the lights that pierce the darkness.
17 You have arranged the earth, set all its boundaries;
You are the Architect of the seasons: summer and winter.
18 Eternal One, do not forget that the enemy has taunted You
and a company of fools has rejected Your name.
19 We are Your precious turtledoves;
don’t surrender our souls to the wild beasts.
Do not forget the lives of Your poor, afflicted, and brokenhearted ones forever.
20 Be mindful of Your covenant with us,
for the dark corners of the land are filled with pockets of violence.
21 Do not allow the persecuted to return without honor;
may the poor, wounded, and needy sing praises to You;
may they bring glory to Your name!
22 O True God, rise up and defend Your cause;
remember how the foolish man insults You every hour of the day.
23 Do not forget the voices of Your enemies,
the commotion and chaos of Your foes, which continually grow.
12 The sixth messenger poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates. When he did, the river dried up and became a road so that the kings from the east and their armies could make their way. 13 What I saw next troubled me deeply: three foul spirits like frogs appeared, belched from the mouth of the dragon, the mouth of the beast, and the mouth of the earth-beast. 14 These frogs are demonic spirits. As they go into the world, they perform miracles persuading the kings of the world to gather for the last battle on the great day of God, the All Powerful.
The dragon, beast, and earth-beast are an unholy trinity who send out demonic spirits. These spirits resemble frogs and remind the reader of the plague of frogs that invaded Egypt before the exodus. These foul spirits roam the world, persuading the kings of the earth to assemble together to do battle against God and His chosen.
A Voice: 15 See, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the person who watches and waits, dressed and ready to go, so as not to wander about naked, exposed to disgrace.
16 And the kings gathered at the place called Har-Magedon in Hebrew.
Har-Magedon means Mount Megiddo and is sometimes transliterated “Armageddon.” This refers to the battleground where the armies of the earth, led by the forces of evil, will assemble to mount their final attack against God. This place is often associated with the plain of Megiddo in northern Israel because the fertile land there has often been turned into fields of blood during gruesome battles. In a place like this, for one last time, evil will raise its ugly head against good.
17 Finally, the seventh messenger poured out his bowl into the air. When he did, a great voice came out of the temple, from the throne.
A Voice: It is accomplished!
18 At the sound of the voice, there were flashes of lightning, sounds of voices, rumblings of thunder, and tremors of an earthquake. In all of human history, there had never been an earthquake of this magnitude. 19 The great city was torn into three parts, and the cities of all the nations fell. God remembered the great city, Babylon, and made her drink the cup of His fury and wrath. 20 Every island sank into the ocean, and no mountains were left to be discovered. 21 And great hailstones, each weighing nearly 100 pounds, fell from the sky onto the people until they cursed God because the plague of hail was so severe.
Jesus (explaining): 18 Do you want to understand the kingdom of God? Do you want Me to tell you what it’s like? 19 It’s like a single mustard seed that someone took and planted in his garden. That tiny seed grew and became a tree so large that the birds could fly in and make their nests in its branches.
20 Do you want Me to tell you what the kingdom of God is like? 21 It’s like some yeast which a woman hid within a huge quantity of flour; soon the whole batch of dough was rising.
22 He was pressing toward Jerusalem, His journey taking Him through various towns and villages. In each one, He taught the people. 23 Once a person asked this question:
Inquiring Individual: Lord, will only a few people be rescued?
Jesus: 24 Strive to enter through the narrow door now, because many people—hear Me on this—will try to enter later on and will not be able to. 25 Imagine you want to enter someone’s home, but you wait until after the homeowner has shut the door. Then you stand outside and bang on the door, and you say, “Sir, please open the door for us!” But he will answer, “I don’t know where you’re from.”
26 Then you’ll say, “Just a minute. We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.” 27 But he’ll say, “Sorry, I have no idea where you’re from. Leave me, all of you evildoers.” 28 Then you’ll see something that will make you cry and grind your teeth together—you’ll see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves will be on the outside looking in.
29 And then you’ll see people streaming in from east and west, from north and south, gathering around the table in the kingdom of God, but you’ll be on the outside looking in. 30 That’s how it will be; some are last now who will be first then, and some are first now who will be last then.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.